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Earlier this month, this blog covered a bill that is currently working its way through the Illinois state government that would clarify the parameters for companies using direct deposit payroll cards as a way to pay employees. Now another state is getting on this bandwagon.

According to recent article from The New York Times, New York's attorney general Eric Schneiderman is taking up a battle to regulate the use of payroll cards through a new piece of legislation. The goal of the bill is to protect employees as there is concern that low wage workers can be unfairly targeted.

"The goal of this legislation is to move past the stage where we're trying to chase down individual employers with laws that were not written with payroll laws in mind," Schneiderman told the news source.

Credit card swipe fees have become a battleground for businesses over the last few years. The Fed had calculated an average cost per transaction of 4 cents with a cap of 21 cents -- according to the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection and Wall Street Reform Act -- and while that may not seem like a huge number, when you multiply that by hundreds of swipes a day it quickly adds up to something that is more difficult to handle.

Recently, the National Retail Federation (NRF) posted an article examining the impact that these fees have created over the last few years. Since July 2013, there have been two major legal matters that could have widespread implications when they are eventually settled, both of which we have covered before.

In December of 2013, U.S. District Judge John Gleeson approved a $5.7 billion settlement that ended eight years of litigation between credit card providers Visa and MasterCard and a number of U.S. merchants over unlawful and excessive credit card swipe and processing fees. However, since then it has been appealed but not yet overturned.

Last week, according to a press release from the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, the two groups have again asked for an appeals court to overturn the ruling.

NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan said that the initial settlement is not valid because it was only agreed upon by a handful of merchants who were represented in the suit and does not signify the feelings of the retail … more

The need for businesses to adopt EMV technology continues to grow as the October 2015 deadline from MasterCard and Visa gets closer. However, while these two major players are pushing hard, what about the rest of the industry? Is wide-spread adoption really going to happen?

According to a recent study by the Aite Group, 70 percent of all U.S. credit cards and 41 percent of debit cards will have incorporated EMV technology by the end of 2015. That is a total of 1.1 billion cards. This information was gathered through interviews with 18 out of the top 40 credit card issuers, including seven of the top 10.

Julie Conroy, the research director at Aite Group, told Computerworld that "A majority of Americans will have EMV cards in their wallets by the end of 2015."

When it comes to the point of sale system, it seems that the only universally agreed upon idea is that change is coming. With the latest technology innovations, the traditional POS system is facing a number of potential changes and organizations need to start being aware of this.

A recent article from Dazeinfo examined one such trend -- the cloud-based POS.

"Retail locations need to do all they can to remain competitive and relevant in today's marketplace," the article reads. "The growing adoption of online shopping habits among consumers has pushed Retail stores to implement more tech-friendly systems. One of most important systems to implement, businesses need to remain relevant to, is a cloud-based POS system."

Using a virtual solution creates a number of benefits aside from … more

In the business marketplace, more employers are starting to get on the bandwagon of offering direct deposit payroll cards as a way to pay their employees. It is a way to offer workers greater financial access and inclusion by essentially offering electronic payment options to those that do not have a back account.

According to a recent article from The National Law Review, the Illinois Legislature has recognized payroll cards as a legitimate method of wage payments.

House Bill 5622 amends the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (IWPCA) to expressly mention payroll cards, something that was not explicitly mentioned before. As currently written, the IWPCA only recognized cash, check and direct deposit. Last year, the Illinois Department of Labor issued a report that … more

One of the biggest talking points since the Target security breach has been the increased push to deploy EMV chip-and-PIN technology into credit cards. It was brought up when Target executives were brought in front of Congress, and last month the company announced that it has invested $100 million in upgrading its credit card terminals and launching a new company RED Card that uses a chip.

According to a press release, other organizations are also starting to get onboard. Sam's Club has announced that it plans to introduce a new Sam's Club MasterCard on June 23 that will feature chip-enabled technology. This will improve the security of the cards and make the company the first mass retailer to actively implement chip-enabled cards.

When you head out for the day, what are the essentials that fill your pockets? For most of us, it includes keys (house or car), mobile phone and a wallet with cash or credit cards. Ask nearly anyone on the street if they have these items and there is a good chance that they will have all three of them on their person. However, what if they could all be combined into a single device? It is not as out there as it seems and the research is coming from unlikely sources.

A recent article from Wired features a lengthy interview with Leslie Berland, the head of digital partnership and development at American Express. The main topic of the conversation is her efforts to get rid of plastic cards. While this might seem strange for a credit card company to look into, the fact remains that … more

Another Apple event has come and gone, and again it seems as if the mobile commerce platform has been left on the cutting room floor. For years there have been rumors that the company would add NFC technology to the mobile hardware and create a platform for payments using a smartphone instead of the credit card to transfer funds.

However, that doesn't mean that it didn't announce something during this week's Worldwide Developers Conference that got people excited. As an article from RE/code points out, the company may have started to show what it has planned for the payments industry.

As part of iOS 8, which is currently in its beta phase, third party developers will be able to access and incorporate the Touch ID fingerprint authentication system built into the home button into their … more